Scan a coach’s whiteboard into a swim workout

From a whiteboard photo to your log

1. Photograph the board

   Open workout capture and choose Scan the board. Point the camera at the coach’s whiteboard, or select a photo from your library. Include the whole practice and make the writing as readable as possible.

2. Let Swimlog draft the sets

   The scan reads the image into structured swim sets. Handwriting and coach shorthand are interpreted into a draft, so the photograph becomes something you can edit rather than only an image in your camera roll.

3. Review and correct

   Compare the draft with the board. Check repetitions, distances, strokes, send-offs and equipment. Correct missed or misread details, and adjust the workout if your lane swam a different version of the practice.

4. Log your workout

   Save when the draft matches what you swam. Nothing from the scan is logged until you confirm it. The saved workout joins your training history, where you can return to its full set list.

Handwriting still needs a swimmer’s eye

Pool-deck boards can have glare, faint marker, crossed-out intervals and abbreviations specific to a coach. Scan results can contain mistakes. A clear, well-framed photo helps, but review remains part of the workflow. There is no promise of perfect handwriting recognition or automatic correctness.

The draft is also a chance to capture what changed during practice: fewer repetitions, a different send-off or an equipment substitution. Recording your completed session keeps the log useful when you look back weeks later.

Keep the sets after practice

Once logged, the workout contributes to your season history and training totals. Search it by title, stroke, note or date and open it to see the structure again. You can also type swim shorthand directly when taking a photo is inconvenient.

Scanning requires an internet connection and has a daily fair-use limit. Photos are downscaled and stripped of location metadata before processing. Swimlog: Pool Tracker is developed by Edward Baltaza for iPhone on iOS 18 or later; its App Store id is 6775411816.

Questions, answered